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DR. FRANCIS' REMARKS 



INTRODUCTORY TO THE 



COURSE OF LECTURES 



DELIVERED ON BEHALF OF THE 



KANE MONUMENT 



IN NEW YORK 






NEW YORK: 
JOHN F. TROW, PEINTER, 377 & 379 BROADWAY, 

CORNER OF "WHITE STREET. 

1859. 






LC Control Number 



tmp96 025793 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Fellow Members of the Kane Monument Asso- 
ciation : 

This large and intelligent audience awakens 
a cheering influence and presents unmistakable to- 
kens of success. The noble motives which have 
roused your zeal in furtherance of the patriotic de- 
sign of erecting some suitable memorial in honor 
of an illustrious man, give confidence to the Board 
of Managers that the work which they have lately as- 
sumed, may, in due season, be perfected, and that the 
renown which follows great deeds will receive a 
lasting demonstration of the excellence of your 
hearts and the lofty purposes of your organization. 
The appeal which has been made to the enlightened 
and the liberal in behalf of a national tribute to 
the memory of the lamented Kane, seems to have 
been made not in vain, if an inference may be 
drawn from the expressions of opinion and other 
proofs of approbation furnished by the inhabi- 



tants of this metropolis and by the generous 
and the benevolent scattered throughout our wide- 
spread Republic. 

The present occasion does not allow a minute 
account of the formation of the Kane Monument 
Association. Suffice to say, that it had its origin 
with a few distinguished and enlightened citizens 
of this city, prominent among whom is Sidney 
Kopman, all actuated by a patriotic and benevo- 
lent spirit, to hold in commemoration for present and 
after times the achievements of an individual, who, 
by his life and services, had conferred signal dis- 
tinction on his country by his bold and adventur- 
ous acts, and extended through both hemispheres his 
mighty renown. Some two years have now elapsed 
since the project first enlisted notice, but the com- 
mittee, after full deliberation, have only recently 
ventured to introduce the subject for public consid- 
eration, and now only have invited your approba- 
tion and countenance to the undertaking. The 
act of incorporation by the Legislature of New 
York, bears date April 5, 1859. Circumstances 
must control their future action ; but the Board have 
the strongest assurances from numerous quarters 
that their hopes will be realized ; for they dare not 
doubt that the American people, with their enlarged 
benevolence and wonted patriotism, will sustain the 
measure. I need hardly give you assurance that my 
own feelings are deeply involved in the great de- 
sign. 

I have already implied that popular feeling is 
enlisted in behalf of the erection of the contemplat- 
ed monument to the late Dr. Kane, and that I be- 



lieve public liberality will accomplish the under- 
taking. The grounds of this confidence are mani- 
fest. The life and adventures of the illustrious ex- 
plorer are of a nature which have secured the atten- 
tion of the philosophic world, and led to a perusal 
of his narrative, more widely than, perhaps, has 
ever fallen to the lot of any other work of a simi- 
lar denomination ; while the character of the man in 
the several relations of life is so pregnant with re- 
markable traits, so beautiful, so consistent, so com- 
prehensive, and so attractive, as an example of ex- 
alted worth, as to have stamped his name indelibly 
on the historic page of illustrious men. And all 
this is very natural. Who is there so abject in the 
scale of humanity, as not to admire that extraordi- 
nary capacity, which, amid numerous adverse cir- 
cumstances, attained to the mastery of so wide, so 
copious, so accurate a knowledge, that by almost 
self-instruction, his disciplined intellect was found 
adequate to every emergency, in a life so varied and 
so checkered ? Who, amidst the most trying priva- 
tions, conquered his own wants and became the 
generous benefactor to the indigent and the desti- 
tute pressing on every side, when his perishing 
companions would not believe that less than a mir- 
acle could interpose in their behalf for salvation ? 
And what disciple of the Christian faith can be in- 
different in contemplating that holy confidence that 
inspired him — that cherished, with unwavering hope, 
the divine thought that these demonstrations of 
sovereign power were in reality no more nor less 
than the wonder-workings of Providence in behalf 
of himself and his forlorn crew? Yet such was the 



6 

man, and such his religion. The God of the Bible, 
of the Ocean, and the Storm, was the Maker of man. 
Can biography furnish us a more instructive ex- 
ample than these words of such an individual ? 

Look then at the narrative of his exploring tour 
which he himself penned : consult, with minute care, 
the story which he has given us in such purity of 
diction, in such fulness of incident, with such hon- 
est purpose, with such unaffected simplicity and 
truth ; and who is there, within this assembly, who 
has not profited by the perusal of his precious vol- 
umes ? The Old and the New World have pro- 
nounced their verdict on the merits of his literary 
labors, as well as on his heroic and marvellous ex- 
ploits, and he stands before us, when we review his 
services, as among the rarest, the most able and the 
most instructive of navigators. But are there no 
other traits of character unfolded by his actions in 
critical conditions that shall further enhance our 
love and esteem for the intrepid sailor ? Have you 
-a, recollection of more promptitude in emergencies 
than he displayed? Does he not profitably remind 
you, in his readiness for action, of the renowned 
Ledyard, the African adventurer? Ever ready, was 
Kane's signal Have you found more humanity 
than his, in those recorded ministrations to the sick 
which he has given ? Have you in memory one 
more fertile in resources in a perplexing combina- 
tion of affairs? Have you read of one whose mellif- 
luous words carried more consolation to the afflicted 
bosom? Have you proofs more convincing of the 
power of a robust heart to summon order and re- 
store discipline — to command with the energy and 



the success of an autocrat ? Nowhere have you more 
forcible and illustrative proofs of the courageous 
heart, the penetrating forethought, the balanced 
mind. He was enriched with varied knowledge, 
but of modest utterance ; his capacity for acquisi- 
tion was rare, yet his cultivated taste and chastened 
discipline rendered him a congenial and instructive 
associate for the most refined circles; and by a 
happy adaptation he yielded delight to the prattling 
child or the astute philosopher. He won the 
most grateful acknowledgments from Lady Frank- 
lin, in his brief interviews with her, prior to 
his departure for Havana, where, shortly after, 
his marvellous life terminated its earthly existence. 
A sound intellect and a fearless and exalted moral 
principle, was the armor he wore ; mind was 
his controlling agent ; for, believe it who may, his 
physical frame, though symmetrical, was small and 
attenuated ; his height somewhat over five feet, and, 
as he assured me from his own lips, his weight, at 
its greatest bulk, not 110 pounds ; while it was some- 
times reduced as light as 97, as when he left New 
York on his last arctic expedition, as his friend and 
noble patron, Henry Grinnell, reported to me. 

There was no stagnant blood resting in the 
veins of Commander Kane ; his big heart acted with 
freedom and with force ; the vital principle abound- 
ed, and every pulsation of his frame beat for discov- 
ery and philanthropy. 

I am ready to concede the fact, that there is 
something in the accounts of voyages and travels 
that yields to us an almost inexpressible delight, in- 
dependent of the merits of the literary ability with 



which they are drawn up, and the character of the 
narrative itself; and hence the popularity of writ- 
ings of that nature, even when the productions of in- 
ferior pens. This circumstance, it is but justice to ad- 
mit. Notwithstanding the high merits of Dr. Kane as 
an author, such voyages as he conducted and such 
occurrences as he has described, would have proved 
instructive and captivating, even if recorded with 
less of that finished taste and descriptive powers, 
so largely a characteristic of his intellectual capaci- 
ty. Our gratitude to him is consequently en- 
hanced, when we have confirmatory proofs that the 
severe application and close confinement to which 
he subjected himself, after his last return voyage, 
in order to prepare for the press, within a limited 
period, his classical volumes, wrought more injury 
to his delicate frame than he sustained in encoun- 
tering the hardships of navigation. We conse- 
quently love his volumes the more when we reflect 
upon the cost at which they were prepared : they 
received their last revision with almost his latest 
breath. Funeral honors of a high order were ren 
dered upon his death, and his body now lies by the 
side of his distinguished father, Judge Kane, in the 
Laurel Hill cemetery, near Philadelphia. 

But I will trespass no longer on your kindness. 
I believe that the feelings of gratitude which dwell 
within the American bosom will prompt to success- 
ful efforts to the erection of a suitable memorial to 
the chivalrous and noble-hearted explorer. 

I have the pleasure to introduce as the orator of 
the evening:, the Honorable Mr. "Fkmfr s, tthc illu3- 
n- of Massachusetts—^ — 




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